Poll: Utahns, Mormons show strong support for legalizing medical marijuana

By Ben Lockhart, KSL
| Posted Dec 21st, 2017 @ 1:41pm

SALT LAKE CITY — Seventy-three percent of Utahns favor legalizing the medical use of marijuana, including strong majorities of Republicans and members of the LDS Church who self-identify as "very active," new poll states.

In the UtahPolicy.com poll, 600 Utah adults were asked whether they "support or oppose legalizing doctor-prescribed use of nonsmoking medical marijuana for certain diseases and pain relief."

Just 23 percent said they were opposed, with 4 percent saying they don't know, according to the Dan Jones & Associates poll. Forty-seven percent of respondents said they were strongly supportive, with 26 percent saying they were somewhat supportive.

The poll also found that 61 percent of Republicans, as well as 61 percent of members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who called themselves "very active," were in favor of legalization for medical purposes, according to the poll.

Among Democrats surveyed, 97 percent were in favor, while 80 percent of self-identified independents said the same.

Among those who identified themselves as "very conservative," 58 percent favored legalizing the medical use of marijuana.

Related:

Efforts to put a medical cannabis initiative on the voting ballot reached a new milestone Thursday when Lt. Governor Spencer Cox granted approval to the Utah Patients Coalition to begin gathering petition signatures.

The poll was conducted Nov. 16-21 by Dan Jones and Associates. It has a 4 percent margin of error.

A ballot initiative campaign called the Utah Patients Coalition is currently collecting signatures across the state in order to let Utah voters decide on legalization in November 2018.

The campaign has told KSL they are optimistic they will have enough signatures by January to qualify to put the issue on the ballot. The deadline for getting the required signatures is April 15.

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